The Compact for Faculty Diversity, a partnership of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, the Southern Regional Education Board, and the New England Board of Higher Education, proposes the Bridges to the Professoriate project, which will prepare MARC Predoctoral Fellows for research and teaching careers in the professoriate and will provide services which will ensure their successful completion of the Ph.D. The primary vehicle to accomplish these goals will be through the participation of MARC Predoctoral Fellows and their faculty mentors in the National Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, which provides concrete strategies for successfully completing doctoral programs, enhancing teaching and mentoring expertise, and seminars to prepare Fellows for their future faculty roles. In addition to hosting the Fellows in the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, The Compact for Faculty Diversity will monitor the Fellows progress toward completion of their degrees, and provide information pertinent to graduate school issues and biomedical careers. As participants the Compact for Faculty Diversity, MARC Predoctoral Fellows will join the largest national network of minority doctoral scholars who aspire to careers in the professoriate. National data show that the majority of Ph.D.'s in the biomedical and life science fields are employed by colleges and universities, and a recent evaluation of the MARC program reveals that the majority of former Fellows are also employed in academe. Although MARC Fellows receive excellent training and preparation for research careers, they rarely receive training in the broader roles they will assume as college professors. The Bridges to the Professoriate project will fill the gap that exists between graduate preparation and professional practice, while providing proven strategies for academic success at the doctoral level.